SEATTLE — Freddy Peralta hadn’t resembled much of an ace over the last few weeks, but Wednesday he gave the Mets a reminder of why he was so coveted for this season.
But first, Peralta had to overcome the sting of allowing a homer to J.P. Crawford leading off the bottom of the first inning for the Mariners.
“In my career it’s happened a lot,” Peralta said after the Mets’ 7-1 victory at T-Mobile Park. “It just gave me an alert like, ‘This is the only one you should get today and keep fighting and forget about that one.’ ”
Peralta proceeded to record 18 outs without allowing another run. Overall, he lasted six innings and surrendered six hits and two walks with six strikeouts. It was needed length from Peralta following a 4 ²/₃-inning stint against the Marlins last week.
“Six innings from him and he had to work — they had some traffic, but he made some pitches when he needed to,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “I thought the fastball played at the top [of the strike zone] and he threw some real good sliders. It was good overall up and down, but it started with Freddy and we needed that one.”
Peralta got Randy Arozarena to ground into a double play to end the third inning.
Josh Naylor grounded into a double play to end the fifth. Peralta then fired a perfect sixth, concluding his afternoon at 101 pitches.
The pitch count matched his second-highest total of the season.
“Coming from a bad outing, I knew that I had the responsibility today to do my best and just give [the team] an opportunity to win,” Peralta said.
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The right-hander, who signed as a non-drafted free agent with the Mariners in 2013 — he was later traded to the Brewers — was on the mound for the first time in this ballpark.
Brooks Raley, Luke Weaver and Joey Gerber combined for three hitless innings behind Peralta.
Peralta called this win “huge” — it allowed the Mets to avoid getting swept.
“Now we are going to San Diego with fresh minds and just trying to at least win the series over there,” Peralta said. “Hopefully we win three [games].”
